“Apple surprised us by announcing it was launching a fourth-generation iPad just seven months after it rolled out the Retina display-equipped third-generation iPad in March,” Chris Foresman reports for Ars Technica. “Though externally it remains almost identical to the third-gen iPad—save its new Lightning connector, which replaces the 30-pin Dock connector—internally Apple has revved up its processor.”

“We spent the weekend with an iPad 4 and iPad 3 in the Orbiting HQ, benchmarking the new processor and spending time in various apps to see if Apple’s performance claims held up,” Foresman reports. “Overall, it seems as though we can take Apple at their word. But depending on the apps you use, you may not notice a tons of improvement until developers learn to better exploit the A6X processor’s power.”

Foresman reports, “What’s perhaps a bit surprising is the dual-core A6X can more than keep up with the ARM-based quad-core Tegra3 (such as found in the Google Nexus 7 or Microsoft Surface). The ‘Swift’ core is using a slightly revised design similar in some respects to the Cortex A9 in the A5X and Tegra3. It uses an optimized memory architecture that moves data in, out, and around the cores much faster than most ARM-based mobile processors. The end result is that Apple’s processors seem to be getting more performance from two slightly faster clocked cores than other devices running four cores.”

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22 Comments

My current (3rd iteration) iPad is just fine- Thank You. The new 3.5 version is not worth the effort to exchange for me and I imagine for countless millions.

Call me when a SameSong free version is out.

PS- Go vote today- whomever you support- it’s the American thing to do. People have died, been beaten, have went to jail and more so that you have the right to vote. If some self styled poll watcher with no authority (True the Vote comes to mind) challenges your right to vote, give them the finger for me.

Ipad 3G is not a “world iPad” if you are away from the US you wont be able to use LTE…

The 4th Gen ipad is considered a world LTE iPad , so it is a better deal .
About the polls, it is weird how you have the right to vote but politicians try their damnest to stop you from voting.
Much like corporation who talk about freedom of market and voice but silence their employees …

So, seeing just a picture of the guy you do not want to vote for will some how make you want to change your vote.

That’s a really stupid person. And the person saying it could happen is also saying, “The people on our side are really stupid, this picture will change their vote.” None of the implications are positive… 😉

Ahhhh how refreshing to hear about “the right to vote” and more importantly “the freedom of choice to not vote.” It’s so darned good to return to civilization where people do have a choice.

Have a great vote if you do decide to, but remember it’s a free land so you don’t have to, you can take a great pride if you choose not to vote as well. People have lived, loved and enjoyed that freedom.

But is this really helping Apple at all by designing their own chips? Apple honestly doesn’t seem to have a clear-cut advantage over Android smartphones or tablets. Critics are always saying that the iPhone has lost its edge and now the iPad. Apple has already fallen well behind Android smartphones in market share and is about to be rapidly overtaken by Android tablets. Wall Street clearly seems to be indicating that Apple won’t survive. I’m sure a lot of it is FUD, but I’m starting to wonder if even consumers care anymore about quality devices. With the Tegra 4 on the horizon, all the high-end Android smartphones and tablets will take a huge leap past Apple’s best efforts. Even if Apple can build their own processors and hold costs down, NVIDIA will be able to build 100 million Tegra 4 processors to get even better economies of scale and hold down costs even more.

I think that Apple has no other choice to stay as a unique builder of smartphones and tablets and build their own processors, but I don’t really see a cost or performance advantage and neither does anyone else. Anything Apple does, another company can easily do better if they’re willing to sacrifice profits. All of Apple’s cash reserve should, in theory, make the company practically untouchable, but Apple keeps trying to save more money and it’s seriously hurting the company and shareholders included. Because Apple charges more, I expect their products to be head and shoulders above the rest of the industry. I don’t like hearing that the Google Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD are better 7″ tablets in any respect.